Big merger: VicRoads and PTV to become one mega-agency

VicRoads and Public Transport Victoria will be merged into one mega-agency within the Department of Transport that will handle everything from myki accounts to tackling peak-hour traffic jams.

Areas as disparate as project planning, the management of train and tram franchise agreements, speed limits and clearway enforcement will be covered by the new agency.

The Premier has confirmed that VicRoads and PTV will become one mega agency.Credit:Eddie Jim

Staff at VicRoads and PTV were told about the changes on Thursday. The rejigged Department of Transport will begin its work from July 1.

Premier Daniel Andrews declined to say if staff will be relocated in the bureaucratic merger, but said no jobs would be lost.

Advertisement

Mr Andrews didn't give any more details on Thursday morning out of respect to staff who had not been briefed about the change.

The Australian Services Union accused the government of leaving staff out of the loop, and called on them to rethink the merger, arguing it was not in the interests of consumers.

"Dedicated VicRoads staff deserve better than a Victorian government that makes decisions that affect their lives without proper consultation," the union said in a statement.

"Specialist VicRoads staff that are focused on the safe and efficient use of our roads will be lost in a giant bureaucracy."

But the premier said the agencies needed to keep up with the changing nature of the state’s transport networks, which are increasingly planned as one.

He said the new transport agency would better integrate road and rail planning and operations.

"We don’t run a road, rail and tram network separately, we run a transport network," he said, adding that transport departments had functioned "in too separate a way" in the past.

"I want to make the point that there will be no job losses," he said. "We’re essentially hiring as it stands right now to get the work we’ve got planned done."

The Age has seen a letter from VicRoads to the Australian Services Union which raises the prospect of job changes within the new department due to duplication.

‘‘This change is not about cutting staff numbers,’’ the letter reads.

‘‘However, as we come together as one organisation we expect there will be some duplication and the need for some change in the range of skills and mix of jobs required to deliver the program ...’’

The government has set up some agencies in regional Victoria, including basing Solar Homes in Morwell, and Regional Roads Victoria in Ballarat.

Mr Andrews said the government would continue to look for opportunities to establish government departments in regional Victoria.

Rail, Tram and Bus Union Victorian Branch Secretary Luba Grigorovitch said it was a good move to streamline the transport bureaucracy.

"Undoing the work of [Premier Denis] Napthine from 2010 and re-creating the Department of Transport was the right decision, this next step is another good move and something which is long overdue," Ms Grigorovitch said.

The former Baillieu-Napthine government established PTV in 2012.

It is not the first time the Andrews government has rejigged its transport bureaucracy to suit its huge building agenda.

In 2016 it created Transport for Victoria, a specialist planning authority that also merged functions within PTV and VicRoads.

But it later bypassed the agency in planning its biggest ever initiative, the $50 billion suburban rail loop.

Mr Andrews said the new agency would go "one step beyond Transport for Victoria", delivering on policy and on services.

"The road system and the rail system can’t be separated; they are one system, and they need to be reformed," he said.

Opposition transport spokesman David Davis said shuffling agencies around would do nothing to benefit commuters on unreliable transport, but would make it harder for the public to track any cost blowouts from government projects.

"Pushing together multiple failing agencies is unlikely to create a new body that will address the cost overruns and poor performance of Victoria’s trains, trams and buses," he said.